It has been necessary for a user to select an input mode of an information processing apparatus functioning in a handwritten input mode or a software keyboard input mode. A coordinate input display and two types of display with a touch panel have been proposed as displays using a technique that allows users to draw a line by a hand on a software keyboard.
The coordinate input display determines which input mode is selected, on the basis whether or not a start point and an end point of a stroke are within a same key region on a software keyboard.
The first type display with touch panel detects the selected input mode based on the length of a line from a start point to an end point.
The second type display with touch panel detects the selected input mode based on the time period during which a contact point stays at a same position.
Japanese Laid-open Patent Publications Nos. 9-319502, 2005-92538 and 2005-85242 are examples of related art.
The coordinate input display, however, has such a problem that since a small line, or stroke, is often written inside a same key region, it may be difficult to identify a small dot and punctuation mark as handwritten input in some cases. The coordinate input display also has such a problem that when touching is made in the vicinity of a boundary between adjacent keys, it may be erroneously detected as a handwritten stroke if the stroke slightly runs off.
The first type display with touch panel has such a problem that if a user unintentionally brushes some keys with a finger while quickly touching keys, stroke length may be recognized to be longer and the apparatus may falsely set to the input mode.
The second type display with touch panel has such a problem that since a user is requested to stop an operation, a wait time is needed.